AO FAA FTSE
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Lyn Beazley AO FAA FTSE is a neuroscientist and educator based in Perth, Western Australia. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University and an Honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Western Australia.
Lyn established an internationally renowned research group at the University of Western Australia, funded largely by the National Health and Medical Research Council, and was appointed as Professor in 1994. Research stemming from a collaboration with Professor John Newnham AM led to changes in clinical practice to protect infants at risk of pre-term birth.
From 2006 to 2013 Lyn was West Australia’s Chief Scientist, advising the State Government on science, innovation, and technology. Her achievements included setting up a nationwide hotline for school laboratory technicians, working for healthier waterways across the state by establishing Dolphin Watch and introducing the international science communication competition Famelab to Australia. Lyn was part of the negotiating team to secure Australia as co-host of the Square Kilometre Array, with the low frequency component of the telescope now located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia. Lyn was Mission Leader for the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce (WA)’s inaugural mission to Israel in 2008.
Currently Lyn is Chair of the Boards of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), Royal Perth Hospital Research Foundation and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. Lyn is a Board member of both the National Blood Authority and the Royal Institution of Australia and is a Council member of the Australian Academy of Science. Along with being proud Patron of WAITTA, Lyn is Patron of other not-for-profit organisations including the Reflections Through Reality Foundation, the Western Australian Naturalists' Club and ConnectGroups as well as Vice-Patron of the Western Australia Royal Society and of the Perron Institute. A Trustee of the Western Australian Museum from 1999 to 2006, Lyn is now an Ambassador for the Museum and Patron of the Friends Association. A Recipient of the Governor’s Award for Giving, Lyn helped establish the Brightwater Lyn Beazley Scholarship for research into rehabilitation after acquired brain injury.
In 2009, a species of sponge newly discovered in the Perth Canyon beyond Rottnest Island was named Manihinea lynbeazleyae in Lyn’s honour. In that year, Lyn was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia for her services to medical science and was elected a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Lyn was an inaugural inductee into the Western Australian Women's Hall of Fame in 2011 and in 2013 was inducted into WA Science Hall of Fame and became a Companion of the Institute of Engineers. Lyn was honoured to be WA Australian of the Year in 2015 and to have received Honorary Doctorates from Edith Cowan University, Monash University and the Australian National University. In 2019 Lyn became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.